Introductions
by Lialane Graest
Summary: He just can't find the right words. A series of prompts for my OTP, most will be AUs and all will be SteinxMarie.
1. Coffee Shop

He went every morning to a small coffee shop on the fringes of Death City where he would drink a cup of coffee and read the morning paper. There were rarely other patrons, and there weren't waiters constantly inquiring if he needed a refill. If he wanted more, it required him to stand and actively move to the register and order another. Stein considered this place a small slice of paradise in a very crowded and active city.

That was why, when he saw a woman sitting where he usually would, a romance novel in one hand and a cup of tea in another, he nearly turned around in a swirl of coat tails and left. The old woman behind the register gave him a small smile and held up a cup- he knew that it was what he was there for, would be done exactly to his taste and sighed. Finding another coffee shop that could serve him acceptable coffee would be more bothersome than sitting in a different seat.

With a small smile, one that didn't touch his eyes, he accepted the cup from the woman and placed the correct change on the counter. She patted his hand briefly as he laid the money down and then swept it off the counter and into her hand before sorting the coins into the register as he looked out at the mostly empty shop.

He finally settled on a seat that was further from the door than he would have liked, but still offered a clear view of the street. He sat there and drank his coffee, occasionally looking up from the paper to see if the woman was still there.

She never left.

He finished reading his paper and moved to the trashcan beside the door, throwing it away as he passed through and out into the street. He turned once more to look in the window, the light flashing off his glasses and obscuring his eyes.

A good thing, too.

The woman met his gaze boldly and gave him a smile and a small wave. He turned and left, the smile falling from the woman's face.

* * *

She was there when he arrived the next morning as well and Stein felt his hands twist into fists at his sides. This was _his _sanctuary, and she was invading it. He paid the old woman again and moved to the seat he had chosen the morning before, closing his eyes to fight off the irritation before opening his paper.

When he opened his paper she was sitting across from him, a smile on her face, her golden hair shimmering in the sunlight and framing her face. It almost completely obscured the eye patch that covered one of her eyes.

"Can I help you?" he asked acidly, shaking the paper open with a snap of his wrists.

"Well, you were here yesterday and I caught you staring at me a couple times, so I thought that I'd come and introduce myself today. Marie Mjolnir. It's a pleasure to meet you!" She held her hand out, as if expecting him to shake it, and Stein closed the paper before standing.

"I do not share that pleasure. You have interrupted my routine for the second day in a row. As it seems that you now wish to converse, which I do not, I will be leaving. Good bye."

He left Marie and his coffee sitting on the table and strode out of the coffee shop, his paper tucked underneath his arm. The old woman bit her lip before coming out from behind the register, and placed a hand on Marie's shoulder.

"Don't take it too hard, sweetheart."

Marie looked up at the woman, a smile still on her face. "Oh, don't worry. I'll be here tomorrow, and the day after. I love your coffee."

"Tea."

Marie just laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Rose!"

* * *

Stein arrived half an hour earlier than normal, desperate to have his daily ritual complete before that infuriating woman arrived again.

She sat there, a paper and a cup of coffee across the table from her, a cup of tea in her left hand and a book in her right. Stein's fists clenched as he realized that she was actively trying to involve herself in his daily routine instead of simply leaving him alone.

"Oh, come on! It's not like I'm going to bite you. It's better to share your morning with someone than to sit by yourself. Isn't that right, Rose?" The woman asked as she looked over at the older woman.

_'So her name is Rose.'_ Stein thought as he stood in the doorway of the shop.

"Quite so, Marie. It'd do him a world of good to socialize with someone anyway." A sly look crossed the old woman's face, "Unless, of course, he just isn't up to the challenge."

With a growl Stein moved to the table and sat down, snapping the paper open and blatantly ignoring the woman while he finished reading it and drank his coffee. He left the money for it on the table beside the newspaper and left.

A smirk covered Marie's face behind her romance novel.

* * *

It went on for weeks, Stein gradually becoming more and more familiar and comfortable with the woman, Marie's, intrusion into his daily routine. He eventually stopped leaving the money on the table when he found that she had also left it.

It was a Monday morning that he walked in and didn't find her waiting on him. Without even realizing it he furrowed his brow and looked around to see if she was simply at another table. He looked at Rose and the old woman just shrugged.

"She didn't come in yet."

Stein paid for his coffee for the first time in nearly a month and sat down at the table they shared and waited. An hour passed, his coffee grew cold, and his newspaper sat unread beside his cup. Finally, after what seemed like a short eternity, the bell above the shop's door rang as the door opened. Stein watched a man enter the shop, look around almost confused, and step to the counter to speak with Rose. Rose, after a second, pointed at Stein and the man walked over.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry for bothering you, but do you usually drink coffee with a woman?"

Stein's eyes snapped up to the man's, noting the fact that the man's were kept to mere slits. "Who are you?"

"Her friend, Joe. She was in an accident a couple days ago and asked me to come and find you, to let you know it might be a while before she could come back for your "dates" as she called them. She's fine, it just took me a while to find the right coffee shop." Stein was silent, his hand wrapped around his cup in a white knuckled grip. Joe saw it and said quickly, "She's fine though. Just got bruised up and is staying home from work for a while. That's why she won't be coming here."

"Thank you." Stein stood and left, leaving Joe and Rose behind him.

* * *

"You want me to do what?"

Stein met the red-head's gaze squarely. "I want you to find this woman's address."

"I'm not helping you stalk someone! You don't even know her last name, Stein." The man reclined in his chair, propping his feet up on his desk. "It's not happening."

"Spirit-"

"Officer Albarn."

"Spirit, how long have you been on me to meet someone? I spend about an hour each morning with her."

"But you don't know anything about her!" Spirit cried out as he sat upright in his chair.

"She sent someone to tell me she had been hurt!"

"Then why didn't you just ask him how to get in contact with her?" Spirit asked, his elbows resting on the desk as Stein paced the room.

"You know I don't handle new people well."

Silence stretched between the two men. Finally Spirit sighed and nodded before saying, "I need a picture though." Stein just stared at him and Spirit sighed again. "I'll take care of it. Does she have any identifying marks?"

"Yes, an eye patch."

* * *

Spirit sighed, looking at the picture he held in his hands. The owner of _Death's Coffee_, Rose, had given it to him. Apparently it had been taken without either of them knowing, and Spirit thought that they made a cute little couple. The blonde in the picture was happily chatting away and Stein was in the middle of a nod, taking a sip of coffee.

He had lucked out and one of the men in the precinct had recognized the blonde- she took care of his son at one of the local preschools. He was outside the preschool now, getting ready to go in and ask about the woman in the photograph.

_'Marie,' _a voice in the back of his mind said. He straightened his tie and jacket then stepped into the preschool, looking for the superintendent.

He found the woman in her office, courtesy of her secretary. _'Her very hot secretary...'_ Spirit thought as he stepped into the office. The woman looked up, her intricately braided hair hanging in front of her.

"Kami said that you had some questions about one of our staff who had failed to appear for work, Officer. I'll do my best to help you."

"I'm simply wanting to find out this woman's name and address," Spirit said, showing the picture to the woman.

"Marie Mjolnir. I'm certain I have her information in a file, if you'll give me a moment. May I ask why you're investigating her?"

"There was a report that she may have been in an unreported accident and my department volunteered to step in and check on her."

"How altruistic." There was something in the woman's tone that gave Spirit pause, a cold bitterness, but it was gone a second later. "Here you go, Officer. This is her address and home phone. She's a valued member of our staff, so let us know if you find anything out, please."

Spirit nodded and left her office, only stopping briefly to talk with her secretary. He left the building with two phone numbers.

* * *

Marie yawned, curled into her blankets, her right arm cradled against her chest by a sling. She could have removed it to sleep, but she felt more comfortable knowing that she couldn't fling it out and risk hurting it again. She had slept in late, and had only been roused by a sudden noise that she couldn't quite remember now. She gave a stretch and another yawn escaped her.

A sudden knocking caused her to jump and freeze. Her left hand grabbed for her eye patch and with some difficulty she managed to get it in place before pulling on a pair of pants over her sleep shorts and moving to the door. She stood on her tiptoes to peer out the peep hole and wanted to burst out laughing.

She opened the door and Stein stood there, two to-go cups and a newspaper in hands.

"May I come in?"

Marie smiled as she moved out of the doorway.

* * *

**A/N: It's been a while since I posted anything I wrote, but this will be only the first of about 30 chapters in this fic. **

**I was sent a challenge of prompts to write for my OTP and this is the first of those prompts: a Coffee Shop AU.**

**The next will be posted soon (hopefully the day after this is done.) I hope you all enjoyed this.**

**~Lialane.**


	2. Star and Idol

"Seriously, Marie, you don't have a chance."

The blonde looked at her friend and sighed. "Look, I know that. No one has a chance with him, but I'm not just going to give up."

Azusa adjusted her glasses. "You're setting yourself up for pain, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah. But there's got to be something that will get his attention!" Marie slammed her hand fist into her open palm and sat up on the couch. "I just have to do something to make myself stand out."

"And how are you going to stand out, and impress, the best meister this school has ever seen? You're not even the type of weapon that he uses," Azusa said, leaning back into her recliner.

"I'll come up with something. I will."

* * *

"Um..." Marie said awkwardly, twisting her hair around one of her fingers as she held her books in her other arm. "Could I maybe borrow your notes for tomorrow's class?"

Green eyes met hers, a disinterested look on the boy's face. "You should have taken your own. You won't be able to decipher mine."

"Oh come on."

He raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and handed over the notebook before turning and walking away from her. Marie stared in surprise at the notebook, and was soon crowded around by other student.

"Stein really gave you his notebook?"

"What did he say?"

"Come on, Mjolnir, open it!"

"Yeah, let's see what the genius uses!"

Marie opened the notebook and a shocked silence followed. The stark white pages were covered in notations in a bright red ink. Some (the fewest) were in English. One student was able to point out German. Another pointed out French. What they were able to read only accounted for about a third of the notes, and Marie wasn't certain that what they could identify wasn't in code.

After all, what did, "Tracheal shift by carotid blow. Hemorrhagic. 95%," have to do with their class? They were just learning about resonating.

* * *

"Here you go... thank you for letting me borrow them." A blush covered Marie's cheeks as Stein met her gaze and he took the notebook back from her without a word. "Um... were you using shorthand?"

"I told you that you wouldn't be able to decipher them. And yes, I was," he said calmly as he slid the notebook into a battered backpack.

"Thank you anyway, though. I mean, what I could read was interesting."

"And completely irrelevant to the test we are taking today. Good luck." He had left before she could reply, but the nervous smile had fallen off her face.

Marie swallowed, moving into the classroom behind him. She settled into her seat and pulled out her own notebook, looking at the carefully copied notes from Stein's. She may not pass this test, but she would figure out what he had been writing about. She sat there, hunched over her notes, until someone slid a slip of white paper in front of her. She smiled at the student who was passing out the tests, closed her notebook and started to work on it.

She was sweating by the last question, the pencil's end chewed and its eraser nearly gone. She bubbled in her last response and sat back, looking at the clock. She had finished with only a few minutes to spare and the classroom was almost empty. She stood, taking the test to her instructor and moved out into the hallway.

A flash of white and red caught her attention and she watched as the few people in the halls parted, letting Stein and his weapon partner, Spirit, through without any issues. Though slightly shorter than his weapon, it was the weapon that had to match his stride. Stein's backpack was slung over his shoulder, and Marie thought that she caught a glimpse of something that glittered in the light through the slight opening. She watched until they disappeared through the front door, her hands gripping her notebook.

* * *

"You could slow down, Stein."

"It should be no problem for you to maintain this pace. I would rather have this assignment finished quickly, we have another exam tomorrow and I will not be missing it."

Spirit shook his head, stopping for a second to flip his hair out of his eyes before taking a couple hopping strides to catch back up with Stein. "I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's exam-"

"When are you ever?" Stein interrupted.

"Oh shut up. You know that I'm not good at explaining _Resonance_."

"And yet, inexplicably, it is your best class in practical exercises."

Spirit rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah. I know."

"Regardless, we'll be back in time for tomorrow's exam if everything goes well. Our target is a 6 hour drive from here. That leaves us with an hour and a half to track it down and destroy it before we need to leave in order to arrive back here in time for your morning cleansing rituals and our classes."

Spirit stopped, his arm snaking out so his hand could wrap around Stein's arm and force the other boy to stop. "Wait a minute, you can't be serious. There's no way we're going to be able to pull that off and take an exam on the same day! We have to get some sleep."

Stein met his gaze squarely and Spirit swallowed as Stein responded, "Then I suggest that you utilize the 2 hours for sleep instead of on your hair or whatever it is that takes you so long to make yourself "presentable" as you put it."

Stein shrugged his arm free and walked on, Spirit staring slack-jawed behind him.

* * *

"Azusa, I can't do this!" Marie cried out in mock melodramatics, collapsing against the couch, her arm slung over her forehead.

On the other end of the phone Azusa shook her head and sighed. "You have to, because if you don't study, you're going to continue bothering me, and I won't be able to finish either."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Marie clicked the phone off and sat upright, looking out of the window and over Death City. With a sigh she moved over to the desk and opened up her notebook, trying once more to figure out what, "Tracheal shift by carotid blow. Hemorrhagic. 95%," could mean- these were his _Resonance_ notes, right?

* * *

Stein hit his knees, sliding a good ten feet across the broken ground. Shards of glass tore his pants and penetrated the skin beneath, but he didn't seem to feel it. He came up running, using Spirit's shaft to reverse his movement at the last moment and slam his feet into the prekishin that was chasing the pair. His feet collided solidly and knocked the monster backwards.

He checked the watch on his left wrist almost casually as he brought Spirit in a sharp arc towards the thing's neck.

It moved too slowly, and Spirit sliced through its throat. The creature came forward a handful of steps before it collapsed in front of Stein. Its flesh peeled away as the pair watched, blood pulsing onto the ground before it collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but a stain and a soul hanging in the air.

Even as Spirit tilted his head back to swallow the soul Stein said, "Look at that, Senpai. You will have an extra 30 minutes for sleep." Spirit paled.

* * *

"I can't believe they're here!"

"I heard that they were out on a mission and didn't even sleep before coming back in!"

"No way! And I heard that Spirit-senpai is only a couple souls away from being a death scythe!"

"Really? That's sooo cool!"

"Yeah, but isn't it Stein that's doing all the actual work?"

"Who cares about that, Spirit-senpai's the hot one!"

Marie took a deep breath and stepped into the classroom. The pair was already in place, a few girls hovering around Spirit, who was trying hard not to yawn and be suave at the same time. Stein sat beside him, reading from the same notebook that he had loaned Marie earlier, and Marie's hand clasped her notebook.

The bell rung a few moments later and the class settled into their seats. The exam was harder than the previous one, asking more technical questions about _Resonance _instead of just referring to what circumstances would warrant its use. Once again, Marie managed to nearly chew through her pencil before she finished.

Unsurprisingly, Stein was the first person in the class to finish. He was followed shortly thereafter by Spirit's on-again off-again girlfriend, Kami. By the time that Marie finished her exam there were only a handful of students left- but she was more surprised to see that Stein, though finished, hadn't left the room as he usually did.

He stood and followed her when she left.

"Have you figured the notes out yet, Mjolnir?" She stopped and looked at him in confusion. He just gave her a smile that may have been of pity. "Never mind. I'm sure you did fine."

Marie stood there as he left and shook her head once he was gone. Now she had to know what had been in that notebook.

* * *

She didn't do fine. In fact, she was going to be taking remedial lessons because of the exam. But, she had figured something out. The notebook she had borrowed from Stein, the one that he was constantly studying, wasn't for _Resonance_ classes at all.

It seemed like more of anatomy study- in fact, she had sat up for most of the night piecing together medical terms that she had thought were notes in another language. She was upset about having to take remedial lessons, but she was tickled that she had finally cracked the code. Not that it was that much help- a lot of the notes were still in languages other than English, and the more she read the less she wanted to know, but at least now she knew what he was doing.

And maybe, just maybe, this was the break she needed to get his attention. She spent the next three nights looking up everything she could about human anatomy, reading and rereading dry medical texts until she felt that she could have recited it backwards and forwards, and then she made up her mind.

"Azusa, I'm going to impress him." The other weapon's laughter just echoed through the phone to her.

* * *

Her hands were clammy, her throat and mouth dry and she couldn't help but swallow. She stood around the corner, waiting on Stein and Spirit to come through when she heard the screaming start. She peeked around to see Kami standing between Spirit and Stein, Spirit's shirt pulled up and exposing scars that didn't look like they came from a weapon's blow.

Stein took it all in stride, but Marie was astonished- especially when Kami slapped Stein hard enough to snap the teen's head all the way to the side and cause him to bite his lip, drawing blood. She held her copied notebook in her hand's as she watched Kami all but drag a shocked Spirit away from Stein, and she nearly bent it in half without realizing it.

Stein stood for a long moment, watching the two move away from him before he turned to look at Marie. There was a bright red hand-print on his pale skin and he turned away from her before she could say anything, moving in the same direction (towards the exit) as they had.

"Hey, wait!" Marie's heart felt like it was going to burst when he stopped. She rushed over to him, and pushed the notebook into his hands. "I figured it out. It wasn't for our _Resonance _course at all. It was anatomy notes."

"Yes. Good job."

Marie's cheeks heated as red as Stein's from the slap as he acknowledged that she had figured out his code. She darted off them, leaving Stein holding her notebook. He opened it, read the message inside, and tossed it into his locker on the way back to the apartment he used to share with his weapon.

* * *

Nearly 20 years later, cleaning out a seldom used room in Stein's lab, Marie opened a desk drawer and found her old notebook. She laughed, remembering how everything had happened, and how stand-offish Stein had been.

Her smile turned to tears when she saw that he had checked yes, and she had never seen the answer.

* * *

**A/N: This is semi-canon and semi-AU. Stein and Spirit were partners together at the DWMA and Kami did find out that Stein was experimenting on Spirit. However, I played on the one-sided love between Marie and Stein that was never fleshed out. I hope that you enjoyed this version of it. Written from the prompt: Star/Idol. A little oddly done, but hey. Whatever.**

**~Lia.**


	3. Anonymous Love Letters

**A/N: This is the third installment of my prompts- "Anonymous Love Letters". It should be worth nothing that this is both an AU and role-reversal from canon. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Is that another one, Marie?" Azusa asked, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Yeah. I just don't get it. Who keeps leaving this stuff in my locker instead of just talking to me?"

"Some people just don't do well with others, I guess. He's probably just worried about you finding out who he is."

"Do they really have to be so weird though? It'd be different if it was a normal love letter, but whoever is sending these keeps talking about creepy stuff, like how delicately my pulse beats through my carotid artery. Seriously, who would think that was in the least bit romantic?" Marie gave a tinkling laugh, and Azusa smiled.

"Anyway, class is starting. We both need to get going or we're going to be late. I have to drop you off before I go to make sure you don't get lost."

"Hey! My sense of direction isn't that bad!" Marie protested as she started down the hallway. Azusa waited for a moment before sighing.

"Marie, your home room is the other direction."

* * *

Marie tossed the letter into a corner when she got home after classes, into a pile with several others. She still couldn't figure out who was sending them, or why. She shrugged, pulling out her notebook and doodling while she decided what homework she should start on first.

She found that she couldn't focus, and that her gaze kept being drawn back to the unopened letter. With a sigh she pushed aside her notebook and stood up, grabbing the letter as she passed it and moved into the living room. She collapsed onto the couch and opened it, leaning backwards as she read it.

_Marie,  
I believe that simply seeing you causes increased levels of serotonin in my brain. When that is combined with heightened levels of dopamine and __norepinephrine_ _I am left with a feeling of anxiousness and depression whenever I do not see you. I can only hope that my own appearance will be able to evoke the same chemical catalyst in yourself someday. Until then, I will wait._

Marie shook her head. Why couldn't whoever this was just be a normal person? It was sweet to get love letters, but she wasn't even certain that these _were_ love letters. At least this one hadn't spoken about how delicate her pulse was. She shuddered slightly. Now _that _was creepy.

She tossed the letter onto the end table as she heard her roommate come in. "Hey, Kami!"

The girl smiled back at her before dropping her backpack on the floor and heading towards her room. A moment later Marie heard the unmistakable sound of her door shutting and the groan of the bed as Kami probably face-planted onto it. Marie laughed. Exams were always hard for students, doubly so for overachievers like Kami.

Besides, she had her boyfriend Spirit to deal with too. Marie scooted down on the couch so she could recline better against the armrest. Maybe the guy writing her, no matter how weird, was like Spirit. Handsome and tall, though she'd prefer dark hair. She fell asleep thinking about it.

* * *

He took great care in choosing the paper and ink for his latest letter. Apparently they weren't getting to her, or she didn't understand what he was trying so hard to tell her. Probably the latter, Stein decided. He knew he was socially awkward and she may as well be a goddess when it came to all things social.

His pale cheeks heated up slightly as he thought of her in that respect, but he forced himself to relax. All that it would take would be to get her to understand how she affected his physiology, then he could finally reveal his identity. If only he could understand it as well.

* * *

_Marie,  
I wish to meet you. I wish to reveal my identity and then perhaps I can make you understand what I have been trying to tell you. I will be waiting behind the gym after school._

Marie stared at the letter, not sure if she was excited or afraid. After all, this was the creepy kid, but it was also the person who had been leaving her anonymous love letters for most of the semester. She took a deep breath, looked at the clock and decided that she'd go. What's the worst that could happen?

Class seemed to crawl by as she waited. She was nervous, and more than once she contemplated getting Azusa to go with her. Then she thought about Kami, but she knew that Kami would probably grill the poor guy for information- especially about how he was managing to get the letters into her locker without ever being seen.

Finally she bit her lip and asked Kami to go with her. Kami just shrugged and agreed- almost too easily. Marie listened to the last bit of their class with only half an ear, their exams over and everyone, even their _Resonance_ teacher, ready to be gone for the day.

When it was over she grabbed Kami and the pair moved out of the room, towards Shibusen's gym. They came around the corner and found Spirit standing there, his back to them, talking to someone.

"What gives, Spirit?" Kami asked and Spirit turned around, a grin on his face. A shock of silver hair appeared from behind him and Stein stepped out. He held a crumpled note in his hands, and Marie could see the spidery writing from where she stood- it matched the writing on the other notes she had gotten.

"Let's go, Kami. I'll take you out for dinner. Let's give them some time," Spirit said, linking his arm through Kami's.

"You knew all along?" Kami asked as they walked away from the pair.

Marie heard Spirit's laughing answer of yes and she gave her full attention to the short, silver haired meister standing in front of her.

"Hello." Marie was mute, looking at the other teen. "I wanted to give you this one in person. Spirit helped me with this one; I wanted to make certain that it made sense." He pressed the note into her hand she opened it, a little laugh escaping her as she did.

_I like you._

"That makes perfect sense," she said, giving him a smile.

* * *

**A/N: Please note, that it is shown in canon that Stein was shorter at one point than Spirit. Hence the difference. I hope you enjoyed.**

**/Lialane**


End file.
